Hello Enterprise Architects! If you are seeing this post, you probably have your RSS feed set to my old blog location on the Microsoft site. I have resumed blogging on my own company site: VanguardEA.com The (human readable) location is http://vanguardea.com/inside-architecture Please update your RSS feed to point to: http://vanguardea.com/feed This will give you access…

The title of this post is a bit of advice I first heard many years ago, while working on an Enterprise Architecture review of a troubled software development effort. Never waste a good crisis. Of course, no crisis is good for the person going through it. Be compassionate. And I’m not talking about a personal…

Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail. This is no surprise to folks in the EA business. This failure occurred slowly, back in 2007 and 2008. But it did occur. It took me a while to realize it. I had developed a method useful for Application Portfolio Management as well as for Service Oriented Architecture called “Solution…

The Enterprise Partner Supplier Customer (EPSC) Model sits as a core concept of Enterprise Architecture. It is so much at the core of everything we do that we seldom question it. Is that healthy? This post will discuss the core idea behind the EPSC model (differentiation by control) and alternative ways to think about enterprise…

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that business strategy work is often about constrained thinking. Thinking “inside the box” is nearly always rewarded well. After all, the person giving the rewards lives in the same box. One of the most pernicious kinds of constrained thinking is “brand thinking.” That is the notion that the value…

I’ve been asked a number of times over the years if I can explain the theory of Enterprise Architecture. I decided recently to reopen that idea. It’s not a new discussion. I refer to Tom Graves post on the Theory of EA from 2012 where he posits that the theory of EA, if one were…

So, full disclosure, I care about Wikipedia. Call me dumb, I know. Wikipedia has been described, alternatively, as the best platform ever invented for fostering useless arguments among ignorant people /and/ the most successful encyclopedia effort of all time. The truth, as always, lies between these extremes. Well, I’m part of a small team that…

I’ve met many Architecture Managers over the years. Sometimes they go by the title of “Chief Enterprise Architect” or “Chief IT Architect” and other times, the title is “Vice President of Architecture and Strategy” or some variant. The men and women called to serve in this unique role have a distinct, and uniquely important role…

Organizations do not work, in real life, like they work on paper. On paper, there are departments (all shaped like a neat rectangle) and business processes with neat inflows and outflows of responsibility and information. On paper, you improve things by modeling things on paper, and then moving things around, on paper, then teaching people…

This is the first time I’ve done this, so I’m hoping that my friends will contribute your opinions: I’ve created a survey asking a few basic questions about how your Enterprise Architecture program is valued, or not valued, by your organization. KwikSurvey Poll – Does your Enterprise Architecture program deliver value? Note that this is…